Restaurant Ferrari is one of five businesses seeking compensation because construction on Bishop St. is hampering access to their buildings.Allen McInnis / Montreal Gazette

As roadwork season gets underway, the city pledges to keep downtown streets as free as possible so people can celebrate Montreal’s 375th anniversary.

“We’ll have road closures downtown, but we hope they will be mostly for festivals, and parades,” said Lionel Perez, the city’s point-man on infrastructure.

But there still will be some work in the downtown core on projects already underway, like the Bonaventure Expressway revamp and the mountain-to-river walkway that has seen parts of Sherbrooke St. W., Dr. Penfield and Des-Pins Ave. torn up in the last few months. That project is set to wrap up in the beginning of the summer.

Perez and his colleague Chantal Rouleau, the executive committee member in charge of water and sewer works, unveiled a $684-million program Friday to redo 290 kilometres of roads and complete some major waterwork projects. That compares with $581 million spent on 198 kilometres last year.

Among the major projects:

• $22.6 million will be spent to repave Papineau Ave., between Jacques-Casault St. and Charland Ave.• The $141 million project to transform the Bonaventure Expressway into an urban boulevard is expected to be completed in September.• $13.2 million will be spent to repave Laurier Ave. W. from Côte-St-Catherine St. to Parc Ave.• The $37.5-million project at Laurentien Blvd. and Lachapelle St. in Ahuntsic-Cartierville will see 12 intersections redone between 2017 and 2021.• $16 million will be spent to revamp St-Michel Blvd. from Shaughnessy Blvd to Jarry St.

The city is also spending $73 million to build an underground tunnel that will serve as a water source for the Atwater water plant. The city said there is a risk of contamination right now with the canal just 50 metres from Highway 15, and work ongoing in the area to revamp the Turcot Interchange. The underground tunnel will serve as a protected source of water to the plant.